Sleep
by XSilverLiningsX
Summary: [No Pairings, alludes to Hurk's canon backstory] The team learns that Hurk can just fall asleep pretty much anywhere after a battle.
1. Lann

Awakened by the loud tolling of the breakfast bell downstairs, Lann yawned and stretched his arms above his head as he dragged himself out of the small cot in his room at the Colhen Inn. Wincing as the stretching pulled at a mostly-healed and tightly bandaged wound that he had gotten from an angry Laghodessa the day before, the bleary dual-blader wasted no time in pulling on his clothes, lacing up his boots, and grabbing his twin swords.

Scrubbing at his eyes sleepily with one bandaged hand and trying to tame his bedhead with the other, Lann opened the door to his bedroom and leaned against the doorframe, closing his eyes for a moment. He could smell the pancakes, and the thought of such warm deliciousness waiting for him was enough for him to stumble into the hallway like a wobbly gremlin–

–only for his feet to catch onto something firm and unyielding lying on the floor and send him flailing wildly for balance. The sight of his reflection coming from an overly- polished greatsword was Lann's only split-second warning as the dual-blader rolled forward with the inertia, his bandaged fingers barely missing the sharpened edge of the humongous weapon. Lann's roll came to an awkward stop when his face smacked against the wall on the opposite side of the narrow hallway with a painful thunk.

"Ugh..." Lann sat up and rubbed at the ache on his forehead. What a way for the morning to start. What did he just–

–oh.

Hurk was just sprawled on his back in front of Lann's bedroom door like a convenient roadblock, snoring softly and seemingly unaffected by either the breakfast bell or the dual-blader tripping over him. The other man was, surprisingly enough, still in his blood and gore-splattered armor and his greatsword was right next to him.

"Hey." Lann poked at Hurk's side with the edge of his boot. This was so weird. "Wake up. It's breakfast and you're blocking my door."

No response.

Lann poked harder. "Seriously, wake up."

No response, but Hurk's snoring got a smidgeon louder.

With a resigned sighed, Lann got to his feet and reached over to close the door to his room. With that, he headed downstairs; he'd deal with Hurk later when he was a little more awake, not to mention that the pancakes were calling his name...


	2. Fiona

Bruised and battered all over from her recent battle with Black Scar, Fiona entered the Forge and gently placed her broken helm and shield on Ferghus's desk. Looking around, she found that the blacksmith was rummaging around in the back for something. She went over to see if she could help.

"Good evening, Ferghus." When Fiona was closer, she could see that Ferghus was in fact rooting through a closet stuffed with various crafting materials and remnants.

"Ah, hello, Fiona!" Ferghus tossed aside some leather sheaths and crouched down to search through a pile of metal solvents. "Think'ye can help me find some yeti leather from this pile of junk?"

Fiona shrugged, the universal sign for _why not?_ and got down to help. She dug through a modest mountain of fine iron ores but found no yeti leather, so she started to go through a crate of broken hand bones. Underneath all the pieces of bone Fiona pulled out a tied up bundle of yeti leather. Undoing the knot had the leather unrolling to reveal that the piece was almost seven feet long in length and nearly four feet in width.

"Is this what you are looking for?"

Ferghus turned from his pile of skull ornaments and promptly dumped the materials he was holding back into the crate when he saw what Fiona was holding. "Yes, that's the one. Thanks a lot, Fiona."

"No problem." Fiona got to her feet and helped the blacksmith up as well. Ferghus kicked the mess of materials back into the closet and shut the door with his shoulder.

"Now, what can I do for you? Need some enhancing done?" Ferghus put the large piece of yeti leather on his desk and grabbed his hammer.

"Just repairs." Fiona gestured to her broken helmet and shield.

"Alright, I'll get on it. Come back in half an hour or so and they'll be ready." Just as Fiona was going to leave, Ferghus grabbed the yeti leather and held it out to her. "Oh, and before I forget, can you put this on the kid over there? He's been wandering in recently and napping by the old anvils, saying something about not being able to sleep in the Inn. He hasn't stolen anything and he doesn't complain about the noise, so I let him stay."

Fiona looked to where Ferghus was pointing to and was surprised (although she didn't show it on her face) to see Hurk curled up in the space between a battered anvil and the wall of the Forge. The man was still wearing his armor and the huge greatsword that he toted around was leaning against the wall, the polished edge brilliantly reflecting the orange light of the always-burning forge.

Fiona draped the yeti leather over Hurk, noting that the man was utterly comfortable sleeping in here despite the constant noise of the Forge. The tired look that Hurk had been recently sporting was replaced with a ghost of a smile as the man snored quietly.

She was painfully familiar with those smiles, the kinds that come only from the faded whispers of cherished memories from a life before Colhen; every mercenary had one, but they rarely showed. Fiona said nothing more and left the Forge, her steps a little lighter than before.


	3. Evie

Evie pushed her way through the bustling afternoon crowd gathered around the Mercenary Outpost, grumbling at her bad luck. Apparently someone had already taken the commission for Everwhite's white scale fragments and completed it just over an hour ago, leaving her with nothing else to do until the next commission came. Sure, she could do some other minor tasks for the townspeople, but she had really been looking forward to blasting the scales off the gnoll as payback for muddying her homebound blouse a few battles prior.

Sighing, Evie looked up to the blue skies and watched the puffy clouds drift by for a moment. Then, a flash of a bright light caught the edge of her eyes, blinding her for a brief moment. "Ah!"

Rubbing her eyes, Evie pouted and looked around for the origin of the light. She found the source a moment later: a greatsword leaning against the wooden railing of the raised walkway next to the Traveler's Shop had reflected the sunlight into her eyes.

Putting her hands on her hips, Evie wondered what Hurk was doing up there. The raised walkway was rarely used and most people even forgot that the walkway existed despite it being in moderately plain sight.

The magician shrugged and trotted over to the beginning of the walkway. Might as well find out.

When she got close enough to see Hurk's head from where it was resting against the railing, she chirped out, "Hey, Hurk!"

When she got no response, Evie crept closer. Perhaps he was...?

Yep. He _was_ sleeping! Maybe she could play a prank on him or something... Evie crouched next to the greatsword-wielder and examined her sleeping comrade; the man's armor looked as battered as the rest of him and there were specks of coagulated fomorian entrails on the metal. There was a strip of thick linen specked with new blood that was tied around his head so that it covered one eye – the right one – and Evie could see the end of a new cut peeking out from under the bandage. She frowned, and wondered why Hurk didn't come to see her so she could heal the wound. What if it was serious?

Reaching out, Evie pulled at the bandage. Hurk's slow breathing didn't even hitch at the tugging, so she thought that he must be pretty deep asleep. The bandage came off easily and Evie could now see that the cut wasn't actually that deep. It looked like the cut didn't even make it to the eye, but these kinds of facial wounds tended to bleed a lot anyways.

Evie harrumphed and gathered her healing corona in her hands. Hurk had all the luck in the world, fighting so recklessly and somehow managing to make it back to town without losing a limb. What was it with men and jumping headfirst into battle, anyways? Not that she had against Fiona and Vella of course, since both of the women were always sufficiently geared for anything and extremely skilled with what they did...

The healing corona vanished when Evie saw that the bleeding had stopped and the skin had healed over fully. Hurk would have to deal with having a new scar, but the brute would probably laugh and end up comparing scars with Karok and Lann. Again.

Evie sighed and got to her feet, leaning against the wooden railing so that she could watch mercenaries wander around the town. Maybe she could go and prank Lann again, seeing as a still-snoring Hurk wasn't as much fun to hang around...


	4. Karok

The birds were singing, the breeze was crisp, and the sun was half-hidden behind a cloud, making it a great afternoon to slowly walk to Rocheste and enjoy the air instead of taking the carriage.

"ACHOO!"

_Well, it would be_, Karok mused as he prepared himself for another sneeze, _if there weren't so much pollen flying around_.

Karok found it ridiculous that when early spring came to Colhen, he would develop something like a cold whenever he was around certain plants. It made absolutely no sense – especially since he was a _giant_ for Goddess's sake, he should be used to the outdoors – but he couldn't do much about it. He had even _begged_ Brynn for something that would help make his symptoms better, but the magician only shook his head and handed him a stamina potion. Apparently, there was nothing that could be done. He just had to let his body get used to Colhen's brand of flora.

A big load of fomor-dung, that was. Karok's been in Colhen for more than two years and every time spring rolled around he as assaulted by the overwhelming urge the sneeze and a stuffed nose whenever he used the footpath to Rocheste. Usually he would've boarded the carriage, but he had an item to deliver within the hour and the carriage was out of service today – one of the horses had a bad ankle and needed to rest every so often.

So, here he was, braving the fields and battling allergies that were unbecoming of a giant-born.

Karok trudged along as fast as he could, hoping to get to Rocheste as quickly as possible to cut down the time he spent in these fields. However, a glint of metal to the side caught his eye and Karok wandered off the path, curious.

A greatsword – not any old greatsword, but one of Hurk's – had been thrust tip-first into the soft earth so that the sword could just stand up on its own. A tiny bluejay had perched on the handle, tittering at Karok for a moment before flying away.

What was Hurk's greatsword doing here? And where was the man himself?

Karok looked around, his hand raised to shade his eyes from the sunlight. A group of sheep arranged in a circular shape baa-ing a few yards away was a strange sight, so Karok trudged over.

Karok shooed away the sheep, getting nibbled on by a tiny lamb for his trouble, and pushed aside some of the waist-high grass to reveal Hurk, covered in dried fomorian blood, on his back. If it weren't for the subtle rise and fall of the man's chest and how peaceful he looked, Karok would've thought that his friend was dead.

Humans sometimes were very strange, at least in his opinion – who would want to sleep in a field, open to attack and surrounded by sheep, anyways? Karok shook his head and wandered back over to the path. He had a delivery to make, and the faster Karok got it done the earlier he'd be able to crawl back into bed and wait for the sneezing to stop.


	5. Kai

Kai pushed open the creaky door to the Bar and scanned the dimly-lit but very crowded room for any of the familiar faces of his teammates. He didn't see any of them, so he forced his way through the crowd of drunkards and took the only empty seat at the bar counter. He waited for Krunk to finish up the drink the ogre was making for a patron.

The man sitting on the stool to his right shifted, and Kai briefly glanced over with his trademark frown. He blinked when he recognized the man, who had his head pillowed on an armor-clad arm, as one of the members of his team. The newest one – Hurk, he believed his name was. He was a formidable fighter, almost as brutal as Karok but just as effective. Not that Kai would actually say that out loud... the younger man (it had been surprising to discover that Hurk was actually around the same age as Lann despite looking much older) had a big enough ego already.

Hurk's other hand was curled around the handle of an untouched mug of ale, and another equally untouched mug of ale was a few inches next to his lax arm. The man was clearly dead asleep in the raucous din of the Bar, and it _wasn't_ because he was drunk. Interesting.

Kai looked over to where Krunk had gone to serve another more insistent patron and sighed inwardly. He could be patient, but not infinitely so. He looked back at the second mug of untouched ale that Hurk had bought but clearly didn't drink. Kai looked back to where Krunk was. The ogre was still busy and working as fast as he could to get all the drink orders.

Shrugging a shoulder, Kai reached over carefully and took Hurk's second tankard of ale. He took a gulp and hey, it was spiced rum with a some beer mixed in. It tasted... nice. It was pretty good.

Hurk shifted a little in his sleep and grumbled something, but he settled back down a moment later.

Kai drank some more of the ale.


	6. Vella

Vella took her time as she wandered down the road to the Magic Shack, barefoot and dressed lightly. Ever since she'd discovered this island, she'd been utterly taken by how beautiful the climate (not _too_ hot and not_ too_ cold) was and the relaxed atmosphere. It had been awhile since she could come back, as too many missions had taken up her free time, but it seemed like nothing had changed during her absence.

When she reached the small beach cove that the Magic Shack was located in, Vella took a moment to take in a deep breath of the salty ocean air. It was the closest thing to home that she had, now...

The shallow tide of crystal clear water looked inviting, so Vella ran into the cool water. Bending over, she gathered some of the water in her palms and splashed it on her face. _Refreshing!_

Malina was definitely her favorite place to be. Vella smiled as she plunged her hands into the water a second time and grabbed a fully-intact sand dollar. _Maybe Evie would like this one_.._. perhaps Fiona as well_...

She made her way down the short beach line, collecting various shells and rocks that caught her eye. When she got to the end, Vella put down her handful of trinkets and stretched her arms out.

That's when she noticed a greatsword balanced on top of two boulders, creating a large, shadowed space underneath the sword. Vella waded into back into the water and peered around one of the boulders.

Hurk, clad in plain swimming trunks and his chest wrapped entirely in blood-speckled gauze, was snoring away underneath the wide shadow. His legs up to his knees were submerged by the water and his arms were casually crossed behind his head. The man seemed utterly comfortable where he was resting, bruised all over and covered with a light smattering of sand.

Vella briefly thought about waking up the man for a bit of fun in the water, but ultimately decided against it. The guy looked like he could use some sleep anyways, as he looked like he had been chewed up and spat out by a Kraken. Knowing Hurk, he probably _had _been chewed up and spat back out by the Kraken.


	7. Hurk

Hurk settled down in the middle of the fishing boat, his head resting on his discarded jacket, and closed his eyes. He had one hand wrapped protectively around the handle of his greatsword, which was lying down on the floor next to him. The constant rocking of the boat was comforting, and within no time the merc had drifted off into sleep, his dreams full of the rhythmic ringing of struck metal, the hiss of cooling steel, and the scent of a blacksmith's spiced tea.


End file.
